Blight

Bruce had told Rowan that being Batman meant that he would witness some of the most depraved and horrid acts that man and faunus could commit, however it wasn't until he saw the remains of the three men he had stopped the night prior that the statement really sunk in. But between the gunshot wound and the lack of sleep, the pain in his arm was keeping him from staring and gawking. Placing a hand over the wound, he hissed at the sharp pain, "Ok boss, what do I do?" he asked, walking over to the couch to examine the bodies.

'Rowan get out of there, Gordon will secure the crime scene-'

"I am right here and we both know that we can't trust every cop in the department." Rowan argued as he tapped his gauntlet and activated the hand scanner. Holding his hand up to the side of the face of one of the victims, the readings appeared on his HUD. The scan indicated that the damage had traces of some sort of substance, reaching into his belt he grabbed a evidence container with a pair of small tweezers and reached into the side of the decomposing face and took a sample of the black substance.

Rowan placed the evidence in the container and closed it, 'Wait….give me a shot of the right victim's side where the decomp is.' Bruce instructed. Rowan stood up and walked around the couch to the side, the side of the man's face was seemingly burned away almost down to the bone. 'Rowan back away from it a few feet I think I see something.' Bruce said over the radio, the new knight backed away from the victim and saw what Bruce was referring to, the spot that was burned on the side of the man's face was in a shape. The shape of a hand.

"You see this boss?" he asked as he walked around the other side of the couch and finding a reverse of the print on the other man's face. "Wait a minute." Rowan said as he walked up behind the couch and reached his arms out to confirm his theory. Holding his arms out he could all but touch the spots where their faces had been burned. "Whoever did this used his hands to kill them. Literally, the hand prints are like whoever killed them reach over and grabbed the sides of their faces and they just burned." He explained, "He must have used both his hands on the one in the middle." He said, taking a step back from the trio of corpses.

He heard Bruce let out a hum of contemplation, 'Get back to the cave, you need patched up and need to go through evidence.' Bruce said, Rowan nodded as he started towards the way he entered the apartment just as sirens began to close in around the area. Seconds later the Batmobile took off into the air and turned towards Wayne Manor as a police cruiser pulled up on the curve outside the apartment complex.

"OW!" Rowan yelped as the gunshot wound in his shoulder was dressed with a new set of bandages. Bruce and him were in the crime lab with Rowan sitting on one of the tables and Bruce finishing up the wound on his back. "Careful please! Unlike you I live in a house populated by others, and last thing I want is them seeing that I have a gunshot wound." He warned before there was a forceful tug at his bandage. "Ow! Ok, harsh, I'm sorry." He apologized.

"Make it up by going over the evidence." Brue said as he finished up, Rowan sliding off the counter and fallowing Bruce to where they had laid out the pieces of evidence. Putting on a pair of sterile gloves, Rowan saw that the phone, letter, and the sample from the crime scene that was now in a petri dish. "The Batcomputer should be able to download the contents of the phone, meanwhile I want you to go over these two pieces of evidence." He said as he grabbed the phone and walked out of the crime lab, Rowan turned to the two pieces of evidence and took a short breath.

Bruce had been tutoring him in crime scene investigation, he knew the basics but this would be his first real test. "Ok, letter first." He said, pushing the petri dish off to the side for the time being. Tapping the surface of the table, the white table lit up, "Computer, scan for fingerprints or any traces of DNA." He commanded, a thin red light scanning over the envelope, a holographic window appeared and said there were a set of prints on the seal. "Run through all known databases we have access to." He said as he took the paper out of the envelope and opened it. On the paper were account numbers and dollar amounts, "Looks like more of what dad found…..but wait." he muttered as he noticed that Prat's name was listed as well, and that the money that was being used to create the weapons went through his account as well. "This must be what got him onto Prat and whoever is behind this." He muttered.

Setting the evidence aside for now, he reached over and slid the petri dish over before tapping the table's side, making a drawer extend out with a microscope. Setting it on the table, he slid the petri dish into the microscope and looked through the lenses, "Computer, take note. The cells extracted from the crime scene appear to be in a state od decay….however there are traces of some form of chemical residue on the cells." He said aloud as his hand reached into the drawer and pulled out a scalpel and carefully extracted a sample of the chemical from the decomposing cells.

Rowan took out another dish to examine the substance, walking over to a machine, he placed the dish into a compartment and started up the Mass Spectrometer. It would take hours for the machine to analyze the substance, so he picked up the letter and brought it with him as he exited the lab and walked up the stairs to the Batcomputer where Bruce had already decrypted the phone, on the screen was the home screen to the phone. "There's a set of fingerprints on this but there were no results within the criminal database for a match. The substance is being looked at by the mass spec but that will take a few hours at best. What about you?" he asked as he handed Bruce the envelope.

The billionaire took the paper and read over it, "It's in line with what your father discovered….except that this is an older document then the others." He pointed out as his finger underlined the date. Bruce looked up at the screen, "And the scroll has only outgoing calls, meaning that it must be a burner phone. I ran the number and it's to Prat." He explained as the screen showed the only calls the scroll made where outgoing. "Look at the date the last call was made." He said, Rowan looked up at the last call's date, his eyes widened.

"That's the day my dad died…..wait if this was in a lockbox then that means the only prints on the scroll would be on the scroll-" he started.

"I already scanned for fingerprints….here's what came back." He added as he hit a key on the computer, causing the fingerprint match to come up with a photo of who it belonged to. Harold Bryce, Rowan's father. Bruce saw the shock and confusion on Rowan's face, his mind was trying to rationalize why his father had this scroll and a file on Prat from before his murder.

"Maybe he….maybe he was investigating Prat before on something spate? And that's how he found out about the weapons?" he proposed to the older man. Bruce didn't look convinced at all, "Well if this is what the robbers where trying to steal, then the one who's behind all this must have hired them to steal the lockbox. And it's probably the same guy who killed them." He reasoned soundly, the dark knight considered the possibility and nodded in agreement.

"It makes sense but it doesn't explain how the suspects where killed….we should have the results in a few hours. Go home and rest. I'll text you when the results come back." He said as he turned the chair back to the Batcomputer. Rowan stared at the image of his father for a few seconds before starting towards the staircase exit to the cave.

When the clock entrance closed, Ace whined before walking over to his master, Bruce reached his hand out and scratched the hound between his ears, "He'll be fine boy…..he just needs to accept the facts." He said as he looked up at the photo as well, at their possible mastermind behind all this.

Rowan tapped his fingers against the table as he thought over the events of the last day, the gunshot wound was healing well ad went from burning pain to a constant soreness. The young man looked down at his plate of food, a hamburger and fires with ketchup, "Are you going to eat or what?" Ruby asked beside him, he looked over to see the huntress in training ate a spoonful of chili. He had bet the sisters at a popular restaurant after they finished school.

Rowan took a bite of one of his fries, "Sorry. A lot on my mind is all….how was school?" he asked, while his mission as Batman had satisfied his desire for good, there was still the question of what he would do in his day life. He had hope that he could possibly become a huntsman, he could take jobs to finance his life as Batman, not to mention he could spend some time with his friends.

He was finding out that when you spend our nights in a batsuit, he doesn't make many friends. Yang grinned, "Pretty good if I do say so myself. Testing is three weeks away and at the rate I'm going, dad says I'll pass with flying colors. Then next spring, it's Beacon time." He said excitedly. The blonde brawler was more than looking forward to starting her first year at Beacon Academy, the Huntsman school was open to people from all backgrounds, there were some cases where people got in on skill alone. So there was still some hope that Rowan could attend.

The young man smiled at his friend, "Good to hear, though it's going to be a little lonely around here without you around. And we all know Ruby will go after you further down the road-" he joked, causing Ruby to pout at him with a whine. "It's ok we're still friends." He said with a smile as he nudged her playfully, making her smile brightly.

Yang cupped her chin in contemplation, "Hmmmm. I think I have a solution to the problem." She said as Roan took a bite of his burger. He gave the blonde a suspicious look, one time she said she had a solution to a problem, they caught a tree on fire which had a kite stuck up in it. Her reasoning being if they burned it down just right the kite would fall…..this did not work out the way she thought it did.

Though in all fairness she was eleven at the time. Rowan however used that as a reference that while Yang always had good intentions, but that isn't always enough.

"Does it involve a dog? Oh! If we got you a puppy you'd never be lonely." She proposed, Rowan and Yang shook their heads, the redhead raised her hands. "Well if you have a better idea for something that can give Rowan everlasting happiness and joy then I would like to hear it." She stated with a critical tine, finding it difficult to think of a better companion than a dog.

"A girlfriend." Yang said dryly to her sister.

"…..I still think a dog would be better." Ruby whispered as Rowan gave Yang a certain look. Rowan had dated a few girls before, however their relationships ended mainly because Rowan and the girl involved would grow apart. One of them actually became jealous of how much time Rowan spent with Yang and Ruby, he ended that because he would never date someone who talked bad about his friends.

He sighed, "Yang." He started before Yang raised a hand to cut him off.

"Before you get all 'Dating isn't for me' on us, I'm just asking you give it a chance." She offered. Between what happened with his father, and the fact that she would not see him as much in the future, she wanted to know that Rowan would have someone that cared about him just as much as she and Ruby did, if not more. Rowan still didn't look convicted as he ate his food, neither did Ruby, "Look, I just want you to be happy." She stated.

"I am happy. Womanless. And dog-less." He added when Ruby opened her mouth, but quickly shut it when he added the last bit of information. The scroll in his pocket vibrated, pulling it out of his pocket he saw the caller was unknown, but it was calling his Mordin Malone number. "Give me a minute guys I got a call from work." He explained as he stood up and walked away to take his call. Rowan walked towards the restroom to take the call, leaving the sisters alone at the table.

Yang deflated slightly and frowned, Ruby noticed the saddened look of her sister had and gave her a small smile of support. "I know your worried, but if there was anything wrong, he would tell us." She said reassuringly to the blonde. Yang had been worried about Rowan, he seemed as though he was going through something else right now but he wasn't telling them anything. They had both started worrying when his cold remark about his father's killer came about. Of course neither of them knew what he was going through, so it probably was natural for him to be angry and cold towards who was responsible for his father's passing.

The blonde boxer sighed, "I know." She said sadly, she simply wanted to help Rowan.

Meanwhile, the young knight had locked the door to the bathroom and answered the phone, using a filter on the phone so that his voice came across as he did when he was in his other persona. "Junior?" he answered.

'Yeah Malone it's me, I got good news and bad news on that merch you want. Which do you want first?' Junior's voice said through the scroll as Rowan walked over to the sink counter and looked at himself in the mirror. Bruce told him that creating a false persona was a hard skill to master, it was like a performance that you needed to be prepared for every moment of the day. Thankfully, Bruce had been teaching him, and Bruce Wayne was one of the best.

"Either man, news is news and I'm going to hear it anyway." He said with a shrug, watching himself in the mirror like he had done when he practiced the persona. He felt like an idiot when he got in front of the mirror and practiced the way Malone talked, his mannerisms, all these small details but it worked obviously.

'Bad news is the guy who operated the weapons? Croaked.' He explained, Rowan rolled his eyes, he knew that already. 'Apparently the guy was hit by Mutants, their boss didn't like loose ends. I hope your contact in Minstrel is more professional than that.' Junior stated, making Rowan's blood run cold. That was exactly how his father died…..but that meant his father was behind this, the safety deposit box showed that his father was blackmailing Prat to make the weapons while he hid it from everyone else. 'But good news is, his partner just contacted me. He's just got to get his plans and he'll be making weapons by this time next week.' Junior added, making Rowan shake his head in confusion.

"You trust this guy?" Rowan asked, if Junior trusted him than it could mean that whoever this new contact was and knew about the weapons, it could be someone involved with this mystery and could confirm if Rowan's father was in fact involved.

'Honestly? I think you might need to look somewhere else for what you want. This guy did not sound all there you know? Look, sorry I couldn't deliver.' Junior apologized.

Rowan shook his head at himself in the mirror, "Hey man shit happens. Isn't on you. Thanks for the holler. I'll keep you in mind though if I hear anyone needing manpower." Rowan said, keeping Junior as a contact for Malone could pay off at some point, and from what he gathered on records, Junior could help him out later on.

'Thanks, hope that job pans out.' Junior said before hanging up. Rowan shut the scroll closed and braced his hands against the sink. The revelation ran through his head, his father was behind this, Prat wanted to make weapons but was underfunded, Harold gave him the funds and the sold the weapons to make a profit. Rowan felt his teeth grit together as he looked up in the mirror. He saw himself staring back, in his eyes were a mix of emotions, confusion, disappointment, sadness, disbelief, but above all else rage, the rage within him that made his fingers dig into the counter and grit his teeth together was the one emotion is his eyes that stood out.

His fist drew back and slammed into the mirror, cracking the mirror and causing his reflection to crack. Pulling his fist away he stomped out of the restroom and made his way back towards his table, trying to visibly calm himself. Yang looked over as he walked over, "You ok?" she asked with some concern, noticing the somewhat distressed look in his eyes.

Rowan reached down and picked up his bag, he looked up at the sisters and before he could fabricate a story, he felt his throat go dry. Taking a moment to collect himself he let out a tired sigh, "I got some bad news….that's all." He admitted sadly, "Look I got to go see Mr. Wayne. I'll take to you guys later, this is on me." He said as he pulled some Lien out and put enough down for the meal as he made his way towards the exit.

Ruby and Yang shared a worried look as he left.

Rowan found himself at the manor within the span of a hour, entering the cave through the study's entrance he walked down the steps. Ace was waiting for him at the base of the stairs, Rowan patted him on the head. 'Hey boy…..at least I know what your all about." He said, the canine giving a affirmative 'woof' before walking towards the Batcomputer where Bruce was sitting his hands folded together. Rowan frowned, "You know….don't you?" he asked, Bruce gave him a solemn nod.

Rowan walked over in front of him and slung the bag off his shoulder, opening the bag he looked into the cowl, "I don't suppose you have any advice for me? Because right now I am feeling pretty damn mad….but I don't want to be." he explained. Part of him wanted to hate his father for lying to him and doing something like this, but he was also still his father.

Bruce was silent for a moment as he thought, "Use the anger." He said simply, causing Rowan to raise an eye as he turned the chair back to the computer. "I loved my mother and father. I still do to this day…..but….that rage, that primal feeling in your gut that you have, it doesn't go away. It never does, so you can let it fester in you and eat at you. Or you can use it." He stated, Rowan pressed his lips together as he looked down at the suit before nodding in acknowledgement. Bruce typed on the keyboard, making an image of the substance he gathered come up on one side and the canister with the gas Prat developed. "The substance you found at the scene was a more concentrated version of the gas, it appears that Prat might be behind the attempted robbery…..we did theorize that the gas could be counteracted with a mix of dust and chemical agents.." he trailed off.

Rowan's eyes widened, "That's how they died, he just touched them, they weren't burns they were just…decomposed at his touch." He said in realization. "Junior called me and said that there was someone who could get Mordin the weapons he wanted….if Prat survived the gas it has to be him…oh no." he muttered, "Junior said he needed to get his plans for the weapons!" he said, making Bruce's eyes widen. Before he could say anything however, the sound of an alarm began blaring made both their heads snap up at the screen to see an alert flash across the screen, 'WAYNE TOWER ALARM TRIGGERED'

Rowan and Bruce shared a look before the former ran to the stairs and jumped down to where the Batmobile was parked at, entering the vehicle, he engaged the autopilot and set it to Wayne Tower. Pulling the costume out, he changed into the suit as it took of and flew through the cave, as the aircraft exited the caves the young man had changed into his suit. Rowan took control of the batmobile and turned to towards Wayne tower as it's owner's voice came on over the comm, 'You realize that you can't let him touch you for too long. The suit should protect you but only so much.' He explained as the tower came into view.

Batman's eyes narrowed, he was right, he would need to stick to ranged combat to ensure he didn't get melted like the other thugs. But above all else his most important goal was to ensure that Prat didn't touch anyone else, thankfully at this hour there wasn't many people working at the tower at this time so at least he didn't need to worry about a whole tower of civilians. He reached out to the keyboard and began to imput commands to the vehicle, "I'm adjusting the Batmobile's sensors to pick up any trace of the substance that Prat leaves behind, hopefully it'll hone in on Prat before-" he started before the computer chimed that it was picking up a large amount of the substance near the top floor of Wayne Tower.

'Rowan the news is reporting that there's a 'person of danger' at Wayne Tower, there's only two people reported inside. Our two 'suspects'.' Bruce explained, the irony was not lost on him. He made a mental note to retrieve the bugs that Rowan had planted, along with giving them a bonus, provided that they survive this.

Soon the new knight was flying the batmobile up the side of the tower towards the top floor, as he neared the floor where Prat was detected, Batman activated the floor exit. The young man dropped out as the batmobile flew away, using his boosters he flew up the rest of the way until he reached the floor where the alarms had been triggered from, he landed on the ledge and took the focusing laser off his utility belt and began cutting through the glass in a circle.

When the shape was cut out, he pushed the glass in and entered the tower, he was in the hallway of the CEO offices. He was at the East end of the hallway, sprinting down the corridor, he heard the sound of a crash come from Wayne's office, turning the corner at the intersection he broke through the doors to the office, Rowan's eyes widened, "My god…..Prat?!" he asked when he saw the state that the former employee was in.

The once meek scientist had been turned into a translucent green tinted biohazard, he stood behind the desk with Colt in the chair, Prat's hand on the top of the seat beside his head, the leather was rotting away under his touch and he could even tee the ex-atlas military soldier's ear become something akin to sunburnt skin. Prat wore what Rowan could only describe as an homemade hazmat suit, it was black in color with the protective plastic torn off at the sleeves and a large hazmat symbol on the chest there the collar parted, showing down to his sternum.

"Well Lookie who we have here. Batman." The biohazard greeted as the new knight took a step closer, "Ah, ah, ah!" he warned as he nearly touched the side of the man's head. "I wouldn't get any closer if I were you." He warned gingerly, daring to kill the board member. "Last time you got close to me, this happened." He explained, gesturing to his face with his other hand. Rowan narrowed his eyes, he needed a way to get Prat away from Colt. "I really should thank you though, before this, I don't know what I would have done if I was still just flesh….this makes things much easier."

"Your sick Prat, you need help, that gas you were exposed to-" Batman started before Prat slammed him his on the desk.

"Don't! I know what the gas does, I made it myself…..because of him….Bryce….he told me he saw I had potential and the board was wasting my time….so a little money from the company was put to better use with what I wanted." He explained, Batman still looking around for a way to subdue Prat. Front outside the window behind the desk appeared a police airship, shining a light into the room.

Wait….oh this is stupid but it'll work for sure. Rowan thought before using the boosters on his heels to propell himself directly into Prat and sending them through the window and out into the air. They were both lightly cut from going through the glass window, as they fell the scientist grabbed onto his wrist, Rowan let out a cry of pain as they fell. It was like a fire was set under his skin, striking the man across the face he let go of the vigilante.

They were approaching the ground fast, spreading his wings, he sloed his decent and let Prat fall a few more feet before firing his grapnel at him, wrapping around the scientist's leg, adding the force of his boosters he slowed their decent onto the ground before the cable dissolved and snapped, sending Prat onto the ground where officers had enclosed a circle around the front entrance. "Both of you Freeze!" one of the officers raised their weapons at the pair.

Batman grit his teeth, Perfect, now I need to deal with the police shooting me. Rowan thought sarcastically. The new knight counted about a dozen policemen with guns trained on the two of them. Three of them came out from the encirclement and walked towards Prat, "No wait!" he shouted before Prat quickly grabbed two of them, his touch burning through their arms and causing them to scream as they fell to the ground clutching their wounds, the rest of the men too scared to move.

Rowan quickly dispensed a batarang ad threw it at Blight, hitting him in the back of the head, dazing him as he turned to the Bat in time for him to he hit him with a downward strike and knocked him down onto the ground, Prat rolled over just as Batman raised his fist to strike, the scientist held his hands out in a defensive manner and burned the front of the suit, Rowan let out a hiss of pain before he heardthe officer on scene yell at his men to open fire.

Without thinking he grabbed prat's wrists and used his boosters to fly them up out of the way of the gunfire, over the officers heads and onto one of the police cars, Rowan was struck off onto the ground as Prat rolled over towards the police who retreated back so they wouldn't suffer the same fate as their comrades. This isn't good, I need to find some way to stop him without touching him but the cables wil just decompose and batcuffs will rust…..wait a minute cuffs! He thought in realization and reached into the police cruiser through the broken window and opened the glove box, Please be here, please be here, please be here, yes! He thought when he found three sets of plastic cuffs.

Leaping off the car towards Prat, he kicked him in the back, landing on top of him the scientist reached his hands back towards the Batman, Rowan took the chance to wrap the plastic cuffs around his arm and pull it towards the other and cuff the them to gather, Prat struggled underneath him, pulling at the plastic as it began to shrink around his wrists, "Agh! What is that?!" he asked as Rowan cuffed his feet together as well.

"Plastic, it takes thousands of years to decompose. It'll eventually melt like everything yo touch, but it will take a little longer than flesh." Batman stated as he stood up and slammed his foot into the back of the ex-scientist's head into the ground. The vigilante took a moment to catch his breath, the police started to close in around the two once again, he quickly pulled a gas pellet out of his belt and dropped it onto the floor. The smoke poured out from the small ball and covered the area.

When the smoke cleared the Batman was gone.

Barbra Gordan arrived on scene just as the special containment unit arrived as well, the team was responsible for capturing extra ordinary perpetrators. Mostly they dealt with Grim that made it too close to the city, they would be given to Beacon Academy, but also rouge Huntsmen and Huntresses. Prat, or what he called himself now being Blight, was loaded into the large semi truck shaped transport with the back being a mobile prison cell. Barbra watched from a wall beside an alley as the truck drove off. She rubbed her eyes as a shadowed figure dropped into the alley beside her, "Prat was spouting out about how he was going to get revenge against Waynetech for what they did to him…..one of the board members said that he was saying some things about one employee in particular…..is it true?" she asked as Batman stepped out beside her.

Rowan was quiet for a second before answering, "Yeah….it is….all of it." He answered ashamed, "My father was responsible for Prat creating the weapons and selling them to make money…..he was killed by the Mutants so they could get the Gas that made Prat into that." He explained to Barbra, the commissioner looked over at him with a look of sorrow.

"…..this will get out…..I can try to suppress it for as long as I can but….you should prepare yourself." She advised, she wanted to spare the young man the pain of the truth coming to light.

"No…..don't hide it, if you do then it'll just get worse…I better go break the news to some friends before they hear it on the evening news." he said as he turned into the alley, Barbra looked into the shadows as he began to walk off.

"Kid…this isn't on you." She said simply, causing the new knight to stop for but a brief moment before continuing on into the alley. A moment later the Batmobile flew up into they sky and towards the Island of Patch, it's pilot unmasked and looking at the piece of his costume.

Barbra was right of course this was in no way on him. But that didn't mean he couldn't try to make things right.

Rowan sat in the dining room of the Rose/Xiao Long household, the past fifteen minutes had been spent with him explaining the situation with his father's role in his own death. "Mister Wayne told me about all this, he thought I should know first before any police came by or anything…..he said I'm still more than welcome to be his assistant though so that's good. But other than that….yeah." he said with a slight sigh. He looked at the two sisters and their fathers, the three of them having a collective look of sorrowfulness.

"Rowan…..I honestly don't know how to respond to all this." Tai said, having trouble picturing Rowan's father in this light.

The young man nodded in agreement to the Huntsman's response, "I know…..look if you guys aren't comfortable with me staying here I have more than enough cash to-"

"No!" Ruby interrupted, getting the others attention, "Look just because your dad was…not a good guy, doesn't mean you're not. Besides we love having you here." She said, Yang nodding in agreement with a smile. "You one of the family." She added, "Like Zwei." She added, making the corgi let out a yip from beneath the table, causing the young man to chuckle before Yang walked around the table and wrapped her arm around his neck in a mock headlock.

"Rubes is right your family. And you are staying here. Or else." She threatened lightly as her grip around his neck tightened enough to be felt. Yang ruffled his hair as he pulled himself out of her grasp, "You're a good guy Rowan. Stick around as long as you want." She said firmly.

"Ok fine, I'm not going anywhere…..and thanks guys….this means a lot." He said, truly grateful for the family's hospitality towards him.

AN: I know that this isn't as long as the other chapters but it's about quality, not quantity right? (Pie gets thrown at face) Ok well fine this is all you guys get for now! So there.

Until next time guys :)